Searching for the perfect place to pitch your tent near Red Lodge? The Dyrt helps you find campsites with tent camping near Red Lodge. Each tent campsite offers quick access to one or more of Red Lodge's most popular destinations.
M-K is a free campground located 2.6 miles up the Main Fork Rock Creek Road #2421, not far from the Beartooth Highway. Mount Maurice Trail (#6) Corral Creek Trail (#9), Beartrack Trail (#8), Lake Fork Trail (#2), Parkside National Recreation Trail (#103), Hellroaring Plateau Trail (#11), Glacier Lake Trail (#3), Sheridan Campground, Rattin Campground, Parkside Campground, Limber Pine Campground and Greenough Lake Campground are also located in the Man Fork Rock Creek drainage.Camp sites: 10Max Trailer Length: 20ftHost: NoAccessible Facilities: Vault ToiletsTrash Pickup: NoFirewood: No. Don't move firewood to other areas or bring in outside firewood. Prevent the spread of tree-killing insects by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it there.Reservations:No Reservations: This campground does not use a reservation system, it is managed on a first-come, first-served basis. Be aware the campground may fill up on weekends & holidays during the summer months and you should arrive in the early afternoon to ensure there is a space available for the night. There is a 16 day stay limit. Some sites have bear resistant food storage lockers.M-K Campground remains open year-round. In the off-season there are no services, the campground is not maintained, and roads are not plowed. If you visit outside the peak fee season, please bring your own water, toilet paper (outhouse will remain open), and please pack out your trash.Directions from district office:Drive south on US Hwy 212 towards Cooke City for 10.9 miles. Turn right onto the Main Fork Rock Creek Rd (FR #2421). Drive 0.9 miles past Parkside, Greenough and Limberpine Campgrounds. Turn leftjust have to Limberpine Campground to continue on the Main Fork Rock Creek Rd. Drive 2.6 miles to the campground.*Please be advised the Main Fork Rd. is bumpy and rocky, especially beyond M-K campground. High clearance vehicles are recommended.Information:Beartooth Ranger District6811 Hwy 212Red Lodge, MT 59068(406) 446-2103
North Fork Campground has 62 campsites and a reservable group camp area. North Fork boasts a playground, shower facility with flush toilets, a large riparian area, abundant wildlife and a large irrigated turf area to recreate in. North Fork generally has less visitor traffic and is better suited for shore fishing and visitors who want to relax with a little more solitude.
Closed until further notice:
Emergency Site Closure This fishing access site is closed due to flood damage leaving the site without a safe access road. These public safety risks caused by extremely high water levels, endangered and failing infrastructure, flooded and impassible access roads, and limited availability of search and rescue resources. Closures will be strictly enforced. Signs are posted at the highway and road entrance.
06/16/2022 -
Until further notice
This campground does not use a reservation system, it is managed on a first-come, first-served basis. Be aware the campground may fill up on weekends & holidays during the summer months and you should arrive in the early afternoon to ensure there is a space available for the night. Accessible - yes (toilet as well)
This free campground is located on the West Fork Stillwater Road and is near the West Fork Stillwater Trail (#90). The campground is maintained from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but is opened the rest of the year without services. There is a 16 day stay limit for all Beartooth Ranger District campgrounds.For a road map of the area, which shows campground locations, please see our Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM)Camp sites: 6Host: NoMax Trailer Length: 20 ftAccessible Facilities: noneTrash Pickup:NoFirewood:NoReservationsNo Reservations. This campground does not use a reservation system, it is managed on a first-come, first-served basis. Be aware the campground may fill up on weekends & holidays during the summer months and you should arrive in the early afternoon to ensure there is a space available for the night. There is a 16 day stay limit. Some sites in campground have bear resistant food storage lockers. Individual camp sites vary in size, but the max trailer length is 20ft. Initial Creek Campground remains open year-round. However, in the off-season, the roads to the campground are not plowed and the campground is not maintained. There is no water and no services. Please pack out all of your trash.Directions from district office:Drive north on US Hwy 212 for 2.1 miles. Turn left (west) onto MT-78 and drive 30 miles. Turn left (west) onto MT-419 towards Fishtail. Drive through Nye and for a total of 25.9 miles. Immediately after the Stillwater Mine, turn right (west) onto the West Fork Stillwater Rd (FR 2846). Drive 7.8 miles to the trailhead.*The West Fork Stillwater Rd is a rough road. High clearance vehicles are advised.Information:Beartooth Ranger District Office6811 US Hwy 212Red Lodge, MT 59068(406) 446-2103
Scout
This is a very clean and well maintained spot. Ideal for a campervan or truck camper. Good covered picnic tables and nice pit toilets Also, the reservoir was quite a pretty spot
Scout
Office staff and owners are great! Areas are clean and neat.
Guide
Nice campground with clean bathrooms. Nice shady sites on rock creek but close together , also more open sites up higher near road.
Ranger
Clean quiet at night. Family and pet friendly. Large campsites each with a picnic table and fire pit. Public toilets non-threaded water spigot near the entrance. Water quality is great. 64 outlets on four different light posts near communal bathroom and shelter area. With a long enough extension cord you might be able to get to your campsite but I doubt it. Close to the river. I feel safe here. I got here on August 30th and stay till September 3rd that's why I chose month of September.
Scout
Restrooms are clean. No running water. Must hick the water fall. It's so much fun.
ScoutIn short the campground had a bear owners knew about, but didn’t inform the people booking. 3 year old child gets attacked & all campers immediately evacuated. Campground doesn’t reimburse the patrons as promised. Greedy low life’s.
RangerRight on the river and lots of shade and roomy camp spots. AT&T cell service is good!
Guide
There are only 2 sites here. It’s a great place to fish, rock hound and there are some trails very close. The road in as well as the pit toilet are well maintained. One morning about 12 people showed up and just walked onto my site and went fishing despite my objections. They were really aggressive and they felt completely entitled to do whatever they wanted.
Traveler
About 7 miles west of Absarokee, 2.5 of them gravel. Sign said tent camping only but I stayed one night in my Sprinter van with no problem. Did not use vault toilet so cannot speak to its condition. Some algae near the shore of river but waded out deeper for refreshing dip.
Guide
We had site 1. The sites are close and not too big. Really the site is small. There is one bear locker, fire ring, and picnic table per site. The pit toilets were super clean and had a motion light inside them for night time. I loved hearing the rushing water all night long. The campground is very quiet. We walked the river a bit in the morning before leaving. We had no mosquitoes but when we arrived it was 46 degrees and when we left it was raining. Would stay here again. AT&T had one bar and our Verizon had no service.
Guide
Stayed 7-31-24
Everything you expect from a standard KOA + Free pancakes.
Guide
Beautiful managed campsite right on the beartooth scenic byway in Montana. No cell service (at all, no matter your provider) but you’re a quick 15 minute drive to the town of Red Lodge with everything you could need.
Perfect amount of tree cover in these campsites with gorgeous views of the Beartooths and scenic hikes every direction. There are three campsites on this main road loop (Greenough, Parkside, and Limber Pine). All have a mix of first come first serve sites and pre-booked sites.
Scout
This camground was fairly quiet. Close to town. Only issue with this campground is how they have sites marked. Took a little bit to figure out the site markers for tent camping. They have little concrete circles on the ground with numbers. After we figured that out it was easy to get set up and paid.
TravelerLate night had to find something. Had open space, took it. Buggy, by a creek, decent amenities, pretty clean.
GuideAt first we were a little nervous about staying in a public campground, but we quickly felt safe and decided to stay an extra day. There was some trash around but overall it was clean. The city park staff had a strong presence during the day, taking care of the grounds. In the afternoon and evening, law enforcement made a few sweeps through the park. There was wood left by many of the fire pits and even a water fill station for our RV. Sites did not have hookups but we run on solar with generator backup so we survived the 100 degree heat just fine. The river was right there and while beautiful... too swift for us or our dogs to enter. We enjoyed walking there and felt very comfortable. The park manager came by to introduce himself also. This place was a gem. Please leave a donation if you stay and say thank you for such a wonderful resource.
Guide
We called last minute for an overnight and there was one spot left. We were welcomed and taken care of even arriving after hours. Nice pull through sites, clean bathrooms and showers, (laundry too, although we did not use this stop), and a nice area with horse shoes and another toss game. Trains can be heard occasionally while outside but inside with our fan running we never heard them.
RangerVery easy to find and probably 20 to 25 Camping spots. Some hold rigs up to 35 ft. Dual vault toilet, metal fire pits dispersed. Garbage cans available and picnic tables. However, disrespect of the land and garbage in many places outside of the cans. Sound travels across the water and some disrespectful people. Nice for one night but also stayed 4th of July weekend so might be more crowded than usual. Also, very, very windy up here. Not recommended for tents
Traveler
5 sites. This is a first come first serve camping area. There is no concrete pads as mentioned in another review. Fire pits and picnic tables at 4 sites. They say it’s a fishing access but unless you have waders there is little access to rock creek on the bank due to thick brush. It is a decent place to stay overnight. No hookups.
Guide
Campsite has plenty of spots and decent amenities. Some of the spots have lake access where we saw other campers with their boats tied up to shore. The spots were way too close together for my liking. There were almost no trees, which meant no privacy from other campers. The campsite was EXTREMELY overpriced. We paid $36 for one night of tent camping ($8 vehicle fee and $26 tenters fee). This might be a reasonable price for RVs hooked up to electricity and water, but this was a ripoff for tenters that used only the pit toilet amenity. The lake was pretty, but I will absolutely continue on and camp in the Beartooth Mtns next time around.
ScoutNice place allowing upto 7 days of free camping. Donations suggested. This is a city park just outside of town, so water and rv dump are nearby. Laundromat also nearby. Toilets and potable water are in the park. You can fill your fresh water tank.
TravelerFree campground run by the city of Columbus. They do accept donations. Only a 5 min drive off the highway so it’s very convenient as a road trip stop.
It has lots of shade and is located right next to the Yellowstone River.
In a Monday night in June, the campground was mostly full.
Guide
There’s only about 7 sites with the ability to stay for 14 days in a 28 day cycle. It’s a first come first serve basis. One vault toilet, rules board and a check in box.
I absolutely enjoyed my 4 day stay. It was still pretty early in the season so it wasn’t too crowded. Beautiful views with no heavy traffic.
Each camping site has a picnic table and a fire pit. Each site has wooden outlines of each spot; making it easy to park in your spot and setup camp.
ONLY WARNING! IT CAN GET VERY VERY WINDY UP HERE! I HAVE A PICKUP BOX CAMP BUT I SEEN A TENT TURN INSIDE OUT AND DISAPPEAR.
TravelerMany spots, you need to have a Montana conservation license $10 which you can purchase online, there is great service with Verizon.
Scout
We stayed a week and really enjoyed the staff and this park. It’s in town by a pretty lake and has Mountain View’s.
ScoutFriendly staff! Great visit for two weeks in our fifth wheel. Plenty of room for the trailer and truck. The restrooms were very clean and the laundry was in good shape. Cody has so much to do you need at least a week. We went in May and want to go back in the summer to see the rodeo.
Traveler
Very nice ladies at the office/store. Little creek runs alone one side, tall pine trees…just a nice feel to the campground. The showers had plenty of hot water and great water pressure. It was nice that they have a little off leash enclosed dog run. Just right for our 1 year old puppy. Saw kids enjoying the huge bouncy “platform”. We have this on the list to come back if we journey this way again.
ScoutNice and friendly management. Easy access from Hwy. both back in and drive through sites. Full hookups.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Red Lodge, MT?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Red Lodge, MT is M-K Campground with a 4.6-star rating from 8 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 17 tent camping locations near Red Lodge, MT, with real photos and reviews from campers.